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Topic: Save the TSA! Solve this puzzle! (Read 4194 times) |
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ecoist
Senior Riddler
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Save the TSA! Solve this puzzle!
« on: Oct 2nd, 2007, 9:06pm » |
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According to the TSA, Carol Anne Gotbaum somehow stangled herself to death while handcuffed behind her back! http://www.lewrockwell.com/akers/akers72.html
Solve the following puzzle. Take a strip of paper 12 inches long and hold its ends in front of you with both hands. Now, without releasing either of your hands from the strip, and without stepping through your arms, get your hands and the strip behind your back.
This is not a play on words; no dirty tricks involved. A fat person from India showed me how to do it with a 6 inch strip of paper many years ago. Now at age 75, I can no longer do it with a strip only 12 inches long. Preteens can do it almost with their fingers touching and no strip of paper!
(Edit: Sorry. I forgot the important restriction from stepping through your arms. You have to find a way to get your arms over your head and then behind you. Too bad, solving this puzzle will not save the TSA!)
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| « Last Edit: Oct 3rd, 2007, 11:12am by ecoist » |
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srn437
Newbie
the dark lord rises again....
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Re: Save the TSA! Solve this puzzle!
« Reply #1 on: Oct 2nd, 2007, 9:19pm » |
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move it above the head or under the feet. Paper doesn't work though, since it'll tear.
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Noke Lieu
Uberpuzzler
pen... paper... let's go! (and bit of plastic)
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Re: Save the TSA! Solve this puzzle!
« Reply #2 on: Oct 2nd, 2007, 10:01pm » |
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on Oct 2nd, 2007, 9:06pm, ecoist wrote:According to the TSA, Carol Anne Gotbaum somehow stangled herself to death while handcuffed behind her back! http://www.lewrockwell.com/akers/akers72.html
Solve the following puzzle. Take a strip of paper 12 inches long and hold its ends in front of you with both hands. Now, without releasing either of your hands from the strip, get your hands and the strip behind your back.
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Huh.
Not sure there's much puzzle in this, as it is written.
I can link my fingers together, and rotate my hands from the back of my head round the front of my body to all the way past my lower back. And it's been a while since I was a pre-teen.
Either way, I doubt it really belongs in Hard....
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a shade of wit and the art of farce.
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srn437
Newbie
the dark lord rises again....
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Re: Save the TSA! Solve this puzzle!
« Reply #3 on: Oct 2nd, 2007, 10:13pm » |
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general problem solving.
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ecoist
Senior Riddler
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Re: Save the TSA! Solve this puzzle!
« Reply #4 on: Oct 20th, 2007, 8:47pm » |
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With all due respect, Noke Lieu, I don't believe you!
Hint: in the solution I know, only one arm goes over the head.
Although I've lost some flexibility in my wrists and hands, I can still perform the trick with one of my socks, about 15 inches from toe to top.
If I am not misstaken, this puzzle is an example of rubber sheet geometry, an offshoot of topology.
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| « Last Edit: Oct 20th, 2007, 9:06pm by ecoist » |
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Ghost Sniper
Senior Riddler
Do not hide. It is useless.
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Re: Save the TSA! Solve this puzzle!
« Reply #5 on: Oct 23rd, 2007, 4:59am » |
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How far down do you have to go? If you only have to go down to the neck, then this riddle is very simple. Otherwise, I can't do it, and I should be able to. 
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*sob* I miss my mommy... *blows nose* huh, I'm on? oh right.
(thinks to self) Time for my speech to these college kids.
"Reason is more important than all emotions..."
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ecoist
Senior Riddler
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Re: Save the TSA! Solve this puzzle!
« Reply #6 on: Oct 23rd, 2007, 10:25am » |
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Right, Ghost Sniper! That's why I posted in Hard! Everyone I've given the puzzle to said, "I can't do it"! When someone posts a solution, you "should be able to"! Begin with the paper in front of you, like you are reading the message from a fortune cookie. End with the paper behind you, ready to sit on it.
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towr
wu::riddles Moderator
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Some people are average, some are just mean.
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Re: Save the TSA! Solve this puzzle!
« Reply #7 on: Oct 23rd, 2007, 10:43am » |
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Well, I managed it with a piece of string tied to my fingers (some 30 cm)
It's harder with a strip of paper, of course, but I'd assume it's the same principle..
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Wikipedia, Google, Mathworld, Integer sequence DB
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Pheasant
Newbie
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Re: Save the TSA! Solve this puzzle!
« Reply #8 on: Nov 16th, 2007, 4:52pm » |
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Nice one! Took me a while, but once you figured out the right movements it works quick and nicely.
To find out how to do it, I found that it helped a lot to start with your arms behind your back and doing it the other way round.
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ecoist
Senior Riddler
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Re: Save the TSA! Solve this puzzle!
« Reply #9 on: Nov 16th, 2007, 8:16pm » |
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Right, Pheasant! I gave the problem to a librarian who had no idea what to do, but when I suggested trying to do it back to front, she solved it immediately! Still couldn't do it front to back, though. Just needs a little more time, I guess.
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Random Lack of Squiggily Lines
Senior Riddler
Everything before 7/1/2008 is now irrelevant.
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Re: Save the TSA! Solve this puzzle!
« Reply #10 on: Nov 20th, 2007, 4:04am » |
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the best part of this riddle is watching people squirm trying to figure it out.
Oh, i did it with an unsharpened pencil, 20 centimeters (8 inches)
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You can only believe i what you can prove, and since you have nothing proven to cmpare to, you can believe in nothing.
I have ~50 posts to hack a "R" into a "D". Which one?
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